This dark world had sparked some curiosity in Nie Yan. There must be many good things inside. He glanced at his item bar and found that the return scroll couldn’t be used, meaning they couldn’t return for now and had no choice but to stay here. Logging out wasn’t cost-effective either, since losing one level meant losing a massive amount of experience for people at their level.
Fortunately, the group of Archmages possessed a vast reserve of mana. Without resorting to high-cost spells, they could sustain themselves for several hours using standard incantations. Tang Yao, empowered by his Arcane Sprite, effectively had limitless mana reserves, whereas Xie Yao, benefiting from her Mana Orb, experienced a significantly slower rate of mana depletion.
The team they formed was rock-solid and remained unshakable even under the onslaught of demon hounds.
After five consecutive hours of grinding, the mana and health of the team members finally started to run low, forcing them to rely on recovery potions.
Luckily, they had brought plenty of potions, so they wouldn’t face a shortage in the short term.
“Yaozi, use the forbidden spell!” Nie Yan looked at Tang Yao and said. They were really struggling to hold on.
“Alright.” Tang Yao gulped down a high-tier instant recovery potion, refilling his mana to full. He waved his staff and began chanting incantations.
His robe fluttered as his body slowly levitated into the air, hovering about three to four yards above the ground.
The Arcane Sprite also emitted intense magical fluctuations. Seeing the seven-colored halo radiating from the Arcane Sprite, Nie Yan realized that this little creature had already become a level 7 Arcane Sprite. A level 7 Arcane Sprite was practically a monster-like existence, providing an incredibly terrifying boost to an Arcane Mage’s power. They even had a special ability that could drastically reduce the cooldown time of one of their master’s forbidden spells.
The reason Tang Yao’s area-wide forbidden spell, Dark Ice Roar, could cool down so quickly was largely due to the Arcane Sprite.
After completing the ten syllables, more than a minute had already passed.
Suddenly, the surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and the sky was filled with a thick white mist. Then, countless black ice spikes rained down from the sky, sweeping across the area and covering a 500×500 yard radius.
Struck by the dense barrage of ice spikes, the demon hounds’ health bars continuously displayed damage numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Struggling to move with their bodies encased in thick frost, they collapsed one after another under the relentless assault, transforming into lifeless corpses. In an instant, the area around Nie Yan and his companions was completely cleared.
Nie Yan and the others estimated that this forbidden spell had at least eliminated seven or eight thousand demon hounds.
Ding! Ding! Five crisp system prompts sounded from Tang Yao in succession. He had leveled up five times in a row, and as a result, every team member gained at least two levels. After leveling up, everyone’s mana and health were fully restored.
“Awesome!”
Everyone exclaimed in delight. This forbidden spell was just too satisfying. Since the forbidden spell hit only elites and bosses, and there were so many of them clustered together, the total experience gain was unimaginable.
With mana and health restored, they could hold out for a long time again.
After finishing the forbidden spell, Tang Yao slowly descended to the ground. Leveling up five times in a row made him extremely excited.
Even if they had to log out, they wouldn’t have lost anything. Everyone became much more relaxed.
“Leveling here is so awesome. Let’s stay for a few more days.”
“Yeah, Boss Nieyan, this is a rare leveling opportunity.”
“Alright. As long as there’s nothing urgent with the guild, we won’t go back for now. Try to conserve consumables.” Nie Yan said. He also wanted to find Mephisto. He couldn’t shake the feeling of unease until he completed the task.
In nearly two days, Nie Yan and his team cleared a wave of demon hounds. After advancing for about three hours across the open plains, they encountered another wave of demon hounds and continued leveling up.
The only thing slightly frustrating for Nie Yan and the others was that the demon hounds didn’t drop anything. Their group of twenty-one people consumed about 3,000 gold per day, yet they didn’t get any drops. The daily consumption added up to about 60,000 to 70,000 gold. Fortunately, all twenty-one of them were quite wealthy and didn’t care about such expenses. For ordinary players, they would have given up long ago.
While passing through a gentle slope, Nie Yan noticed that many Dragon’s Blood Grasses were growing nearby. This was a material used to make high-tier instant recovery potions. He collected them. Currently, his alchemy level was sufficient to create high-tier instant recovery potions, although the potions he made could only be used by himself.
“Did any of you learn production skills?” Nie Yan asked in the party chat.
“I learned potion-making and alchemy.” Xie Yao replied in the party chat.
“I learned bandaging and potion-making.” Killable Bad Guy said.
Most of the team members had learned some production skills, and their skill levels were quite high. It turned out that when they had chosen their top-tier classes, they had all learned some production skills, especially potion-making, which was practically a must-have skill for everyone. They just hadn’t mentioned it before since they didn’t use them often.
Nie Yan tallied up the skills. Since everyone had learned some production skills, and they could find some materials in this dark world, they could still get some potion supplies.
Everyone got busy in the dark world, steadily increasing their levels.
Nie Yan’s level broke through 140. After reaching level 140, leveling became even harder, requiring dozens of times more experience than before. Normally, it would take three or four days, even five or six days, to level up. Fortunately, there was nothing urgent happening with the Bull Tribe, so they could stay in this dark world for a while.
Xie Yao, Tang Yao, and the other spellcasters leveled up faster and had reached level 142, but their progress was very slow. Their experience bars crawled forward like snails. As for Cui Can Daoguang and others, they were also stuck around level 140, just like Nie Yan.
The dark world was vast, endless plains everywhere, filled with roaming packs of demon hounds.
Nie Yan mapped out the areas they had passed through, gradually extending their exploration range. However, they still hadn’t found Mephisto.
“I just obtained the Judge title.” Tang Yao looked at his status and excitedly said in the party chat.
“What level is it?”
“It seems pretty high. My reputation with the Human Empire and Orc Empire increased by 60.”
The group found a safe place to sit down and chat for a while, preparing to continue grinding after their mana and health fully recovered.
“I wonder if we can reach level 150 after two months of grinding. After level 140, leveling up became too difficult. Each level requires 70% more experience. Reaching level 150 would be terrifying.” Tang Yao said. He had specifically recorded the experience required for each level and discovered a pattern.
Hearing Tang Yao’s words, everyone gasped in horror. If reaching level 150 required experience that was over a hundred times the original, the amount must be unimaginable.
Nie Yan smiled and said, “This is just the beginning. You’ll understand when you reach 150 or 160.” Faith was designed to bring players’ levels closer together. When players reached higher levels, leveling up became extremely difficult, with each level requiring an enormous amount of experience. In the later stages, players’ levels became similar, with only a two or three-level difference between players, but the experience difference could be astronomical. Because leveling up was so slow, more players focused their efforts on collecting top-tier equipment. With top-tier equipment, their leveling speed would increase.
“Why can you still smile, Boss Nieyan?” Killable Bad Guy and others said with bitter faces.
“It’s actually fine. Everyone is leveling up gradually, so there’s no issue,” Nie Yan said. In his previous life, he had reached level 180, so he was already experienced and remained composed. Back then, most players’ levels weren’t vastly different. Those with average skills were around levels 150-160. Players with slightly better skills who put more effort into leveling up were around levels 170-180. Those who reached even higher levels, such as 190 or 200, were exceedingly rare—only top-tier classes could achieve that, mostly Archmages.
Nie Yan had taken about two years to level from 1 to 140 in his past life, three years to level from 140 to 160, and about five years to level from 160 to 180. One could imagine how slowly the experience points increased later on.
Nie Yan roughly estimated that his leveling speed in this life was ten times faster than in his past life. However, this time he had to devote a significant amount of time to guild affairs and couldn’t stay in one place grinding levels for months or even half a year like before. By this calculation, he should be able to reach level 180 in about three years. As for levels beyond 180, the sheer amount of experience required made Nie Yan’s head spin. Reaching level 200 like those Archmages from his past life would be an enormous challenge.
However, with his current leveling speed, it was not impossible.
When Tang Yao mentioned level 150, Nie Yan immediately thought of the Abak set. He only needed two more pieces to complete the entire Abak set, which was a legendary set with powerful set attribute bonuses. He needed to level up to 150 as soon as possible to wear the Abak set.
Should he stay here and grind levels for a while?
After all, there was no guild that could threaten the Bull Tribe now. The Bull Tribe also needed a lot of time to consolidate its position in the Grinland Empire. They couldn’t go to war again, or it would be easy to destabilize their foundation.
Nie Yan thought for a moment and made a decision. He would first grind a few levels in this dark world, reaching around 147 or 148, then continue searching for the Abak set. Once he collected the entire Abak set, he could wear it.
However, they absolutely couldn’t let anyone know that they were in the dark world, to prevent Angel Dominion from coming to cause trouble again.
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